A Link Between Worlds Destructoid Gives ALBW a 6.5/10

[Dio]

http://www.destructoid.com/review-the-legend-of-zelda-a-link-between-worlds-265374.phtml

You can read the review by clicking this link.
I am kind of amazed at this. Such a major website giving this pitifully low score. 6.5 is not even average, that is well below, which is in contrast to the high scores all other major game reviewers are giving. People were upset when SS was given an 8/10 by Gamespot so I imagine this has the potential to cause some upset.

The main reason for the low score is that the reviewer said there was nothing memorable about the game nothing really new and it lacks heart. If this was an issue with other reviews then I might be worried, but it seems to be just one man's opinion for now.

Do you think this review is overly harsh? A websites official review reflects the websites opinion as a whole. This is a website that gave Modern Warfare 3 a 9.5/10, which is an incredibly inspired memorable and captivating game with loads of new features and heart...not.

 

[Justac00lguy]

It may be harsh but I respect others' opinions and won't dismiss them just because it isn't what I wanted etc. There was a reason why they gave it such a low score (in comparison to the majority) and I'll probably give it a read to get a bigger perspective.

It's to be expected really, there will always be an anomaly when you look at the averages, this just happens to be the case here as well.

 

[Ventus]

coooooor DTOID are a respectable company, they always know what they are talking about (unless it's Jim Sterling, the old dastard needs to retire), and I agree with this score. Just, my fix for Zelda is not there anymore; I've moved on (mainly to my powerhouse of a PC). I would like to talk about what you said about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, however.

This is a website that gave Modern Warfare 3 a 9.5/10, which is an incredibly inspired memorable and captivating game with loads of new features and heart...not.

A good-to-great game does not need to be inspired. It does not need to be memorable for everyone. It does not need to be captivating for everyone, and it most definitely does nto need to be new. I mean, OoT is not at all new bar its being 3D; almost all of its stuff it took from previous games in the Zelda series and gaming abroad! And it doesn't captivate too many people int his day and age. However, it DOES captivate me, and it is incredibly memorable for me - positively, that is. So, my point is that I can give any game whatever score I want; it's a score from MY opinion after all.

And with that being done, I highly disagree with Destructoid's score (I dislike them anyway; they rarely if ever know what they're talking about in my experience), I'll bash it at any chance I get (unless ALBW proves to be weak af), but I think they have the right to post it and all.

 

[Salem]

As long as they're not doing it to provoke Zelda fans into complaining and getting more views, then whatever, I don't care.

 

[DarkestLink]

Well...we never played it...but if it's as basic as aLttP was, there goes any memorable story. In fact, if it's really as bare bones as aLttP was, it wouldn't surprise me if it legacy will always be "Modern aLttP".

 

[JuicieJ]

Well...we never played it...but if it's as basic as aLttP was, there goes any memorable story. In fact, if it's really as bare bones as aLttP was, it wouldn't surprise me if it legacy will always be "Modern aLttP".

It's cute how you think A Link to the Past is bare bones, yet you endlessly praise Twilight Princess.

 

[Salem]

Well...we never played it...but if it's as basic as aLttP was, there goes any memorable story. In fact, if it's really as bare bones as aLttP was, it wouldn't surprise me if it legacy will always be "Modern aLttP".

You actually care about stories in Zelda games? Really? I thought you didn't.

 

[Dio]

A good-to-great game does not need to be inspired. It does not need to be memorable for everyone. It does not need to be captivating for everyone, and it most definitely does nto need to be new. I mean, OoT is not at all new bar its being 3D; almost all of its stuff it took from previous games in the Zelda series and gaming abroad! And it doesn't captivate too many people int his day and age. However, it DOES captivate me, and it is incredibly memorable for me - positively, that is. So, my point is that I can give any game whatever score I want; it's a score from MY opinion after all.

I agree a game need not be inspired or new. I would be happy with a 3D Zelda every now and again with a bit of a different story and using almost the same gameplay as the last. I would not even mind revisiting areas from the past.
The reason I brought up the words new features and inspired, is because those are the things the reviewer said that they marked the game down for, and therefore implying that if ALBW was inspired and had more new features it would get a higher score for them. When those are necessary criteria to give a game a high score for a particular website, it should really be true for all cases. COD is a franchise that never really does much new. Say I reviewed Modern Warfare 1 and gave it a 9/10, then I played Modern Warfare 3. I might give it an 8 because it is uninspired, but because it has the same game play in the first that I enjoyed whilst offering a slightly different story experience I would not be able to justify knocking off so many points, just because the game is not exactly the way I want it, with loads of innovation and a brand new storyline involving aliens or something. Destructoid gives COD Modern warfare games all scores in the 9's, they are all so similar to each other with very little change between titles. Surely if other Zelda games on Destructoid get high scores, if a new zelda comes out that is similar to another then it should also get a high score. The guy likes ALTTP, he likes the way it plays. It's not as though he disliked the gameplay or said the graphics were bad. He marked it down so much because it did not do exactly what he wanted it to, it's as though he thinks the game HAS to innovate, it HAS to be new, when many games don't and aren't and are given high scores.

 

[Mercedes]

6.5 is not even average, that is well below

No it's not, the Destructoid little review score explanation even says 'above average'. Though it is a lower than other websites, yeah.

Well, in any case, no one's going to like every game, that's pretty much for certain and lots of games that get massive critical praise have 1 or 2 negative reviews. But this just tells us the people who didn't like it are in the minority. The review reads like a man bored of Zelda though, since the conclusion just hammers home the fact that nothing's new and it's not as good as ALTTP, but doesn't actually say the gameplay and everything itself is, objectively, bad. So I'm sure any fans of Zelda wouldn't have a problem with it.

 

[Heroine of Winds]

Meh, it's the guy's opinion, after all. It's not stopping me from getting it, though.

 

[Mangachick14]

It's one guy's opinion. I'll be the judge of how good I think it is, not the author of some random article on the internet. If I let that get in my way of enjoying something, I wouldn't have been able to love Skyward Sword as much as I do.

 

[Midna]

When it comes to entertainment, I don't take individual opinions into consideration but rather look at the general consensus from a bevy of reviewers.

 

[Shadow Blade]

In the end all that is important to me on the subject of ratings is whether I like it, that said its still good to know that for the most part ALBW is well rated.

 

[MW7]

The reviewer complained about the quality of dungeons which is the only thing in that whole review which concerns me. He didn't like the story or most characters which don't matter to me at all. He also said ALTTP was his favorite Zelda game which implies he probably is a little older and very used to Zelda puzzles. Still the fact that he felt like he was breezing through dungeons is not a good sign. From what I heard about the game, the rental system came along with multiple ways of proceeding through puzzles (I could be way off on this but I think I heard this somewhere). This would allow someone that knows what they are doing to really breeze through the game. This is because someone that is used to puzzle solving might have trouble figuring out a puzzle with a single solution on occasion, but the odds are low that this same person would overlook all potential solutions to a puzzle with multiple solutions. So this could be a deceptively easy game that makes you feel clever. I'm just speculating though so who knows. I'll probably love the game even if the difficulty isn't close to what I was hoping for.

 

[JuicieJ]

So this could be a deceptively easy game that makes you feel clever. I'm just speculating though so who knows.

That's Zelda in general.